The choir melody sung in the succeeding "Neighbour" so neatly responds to the chanted chorus of "Let Me Go" that it gives the feeling of a live, improvised medley. These elements blend without warning into a remake of "Let Me Go" by Reggie Dokes, stretched out by Culoe into a breathless, expansive plateau. Culoe's dub version of a tune by Soundiata's Rebels is carried by a trebly guitar-scratch riff reminiscent of '60s highlife and an elongated synth line, while sound effects skitter in the background.
Two remixes appear in the middle, but you'll have to follow the tracklisting closely to figure out which ones they are, as they've been effortlessly woven into Culoe's tribal tapestry.
Together with sustained, ethereal chords, the drums provide a driving pulse for a gorgeously orchestrated tide of overlapping vocal lines, a mixture of chants and calls whose joyous, ecstatic energy fall somewhere between a church choir performance and a party under the stars. Across the LP's front half, the rhythms barely change. Whereas tunes on the earlier two EPs year relied largely on shifting layers of tribal drums, A Giant Leap adds an impressive array of vocalists into this mix CD of original productions, including the renowned Mail singer Salif Keita. Squeezed out at the end of a whirlwind year, A Giant Leap delivers on its title by significantly advancing the African-electronic template that saw Culoe plucked out of the Red Bull Music Academy in the first place, delivering on previous promise while hinting at future progression. It wasn't afro-house so much as African music which happened to be heavily influenced by house. In contrast to tracks that merely deployed ethnic beats and unusual percussion for novel effect, The Bright Forest and its successor, The Fallen Siren, worked out from within African music traditions to meet electronic club music head on. In a year which saw a plethora of tribal-tinged, exotic house records, South African Culoe de Song's debut The Bright Forest stood out as what you might call the real deal.
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